Bill dies, but teacher evaluation debate to continue

Legislation to change teacher evaluation methods in California was scrapped last week, but education officials said it’s only a matter of time before the issue is revived in Sacramento.

Amid growing controversy and a ticking clock, Assemblyman Felipe Fuentes, D-Sylmar, pulled Assembly Bill 5 during the final week of the legislative session.

Fuentes, who is termed out, said he withdrew the bill because there wasn’t enough time to give it a full public hearing. “While every study has shown the quality of a teacher as the single most important factor in improving student achievement, I am disappointed that were unable to update California’s out-of-date, 40-year-old teacher evaluation system,” he said.

His measure, the latest in a series of proposals across the country aiming to revise the way teachers are assessed, sought to establish a standardized system that would include students’ test scores and classroom observations. Critics said the bill would have been rendered toothless because it allowed unions to collectively bargain crucial details, such as how much weight would be given to student achievement.

Teacher evaluations have undergone scrutiny in recent years for various reasons.

Among them is the Race to the Top grant competition, which requires school districts to incorporate measures of teacher effectiveness to qualify for certain federal funds. The 2010 documentary “Waiting for Superman” also put a spotlight on the evaluations issue by questioning whether public school instructors faced enough accountability. And new research by economists has shown that a child’s educational success often rests on a teacher’s classroom effectiveness or shortcomings.

In addition, a judge ruled earlier this year that the Los Angeles Unified School District was violating a state law that mandates some use of students’ test scores in appraising teachers. More than 99 percent of that district’s teachers receive the top evaluation ranking.

Nationwide, a growing number of states and school districts have included new measures of teacher effectiveness for evaluations, tenure policies and consideration of merit pay or bonuses.

Teachers and administrators continue to disagree on how to grade educators in a way that encourages professional growth while giving districts the ability to push out subpar instructors.

Support and opposition to the Fuentes legislation were all over the map.

The bill had the backing of the powerful California Teachers Association, but was opposed by some groups of education administrators. Allies of the measure said it was reasonable and comprehensive, while critics said it didn’t go far enough in revamping the evaluations process.

Officials in the San Diego Unified School District, the second-largest in California, had monitored the bill closely.

“We are very disappointed it was pulled,” said Bill Freeman, who represents about 7,000 teachers as president of the San Diego Education Association. “The bill offered an evaluation system that had multiple measures of a teacher.”

Freeman said he “has no problem” including test scores in teacher evaluations, as long as other performance criteria are considered.

San Diego Unified currently has no plans to reshape teacher appraisals. Instead, the district is working on ways to improve instruction through professional collaboration between teachers and principals.

Although test scores are not used in its teacher evaluations, principals tap that data to identify teachers who need help and others who might provide mentoring, said school board President John Lee Evans.

“Some people and groups want to blame teachers for all the problems in public education,” Evans said. “We are working to give teachers the opportunity to work together and improve the profession.”